The present invention relates to baths for generating microstructures which are required in numerous fields of application of microsystem technique and in microstructuring.
Moreover such baths enable microstructuring of such layers or layer systems, the application of which previously has been unusual in the foregoing fields of art. The application of the present invention is of particular advantage in structuring layer systems, the selective etching of which is critical when conventional etching means are used, due to the similar chemical behavior of the materials used. Moreover, utilization of conventional approaches has been feasible only by employing additional and expensive means, such as etching barriers or the like. Etching processes and developing processes previously used in microstructuring according to the state of art are generally based on poisonous chemicals which are harmful to health, as for example strong acids, lyes, and oxidants, or require extremely expensive processes, such as reactive ion etching and plasma etching, respectively, (refer to S. Bxc3xcttgenbach, Mikromechanik, B. G. Teubner, Stuttgart, 1994).
It is an object of the present invention to provide novel baths for producing microstructures which offer a less expensive alternative to conventional approaches for producing such microstructures and for which disposal thereof is more friendly to the environment than in the known methods for manufacture of microstructures.
The object is realized by providing a bath comprising a solution containing at least one biogenic agent, for example, an enzyme, which effects a pre-selectable layer.